Side door for railway box cars



Aug. 21, 1928. I 1,681,814

A. E. SMALL SIDE DOOR FOR RAILWAY BOX CARS Filed Dec. 25, 1926 510817, for

Patented Aug. 21?, 1928.

UNITED STATES 1,681,814 IPATE'NTTOFFICE.

ABTEU n. sMALIL or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOB TO RAILW Y METAL raonnc'rs comm, or CHICAGO, II .I.INo1s, A CORPORATION or DELAWARE.

sron noon ron RAILWAY BOX CARS.

Application filed December 23, 1926.' Serial No. 156,702.

My device relates to a railway car having a door opening in its side wall and a door arranged to move horizontally to close the door opening. Such a door may be supported 5 upon the side sill by brackets with antifric-- tion rollers mounted therein, (as illustrated) or it may be supported by suspension hangers engaging a track supported by the side plates adjacent the top of the door opening. The

front Vertical edge of the door is provided with a stiffener or 'frame member having a tongue or extension which engages a front door stop mounted on the front door post and the rear vertical edge of the door is provided with a stiffener or frame member having a tongue or. 1 extension which engages a rear locking strip mounted on the rear door post. These front' and rear tongue engagements form weatherproof and burglarproof' 'joints. The upper horizontal edge of the door is provided with I a stifiener, frame member or a top interlocking strip (as shown in the drawings) and the."

bottom edge is rovided with a frame member or perhaps a depending lip behind thesupporting bracket .(as'illustratedy The front, rear, top and bottom stiffene s i are secured together at the corners of t e door to form arectangular frame. It is com- '30 mon practice to stiflen the four sides of a wooden door with-such frame members and to stiifen the wooden door with battens, stiles and intermediate horizontal metal sti-ifening "strips, but my device is an improvement the'reon and contem lates the use of-a relatively thin metallicp ate rigidly secured to such a frame or-formed integraltherewith with integral horizontal, vertical-or diagonal corrugations or embossments formed therein which 4ov transmit any loads or thrusts imposed thereon to the frame members. Boardsor grain doors are sometimes nailed to the inside of the door posts to prevent the lading bearing against the door, but 'more frequently, particularly in package lading, the cargo bears against the door, and the impact of the car in service causes a wedging action between the cargo and thedoor. A side door is subjected to quite a' few forces which have a tendency to distort the rectangularity of the door .and cause buckling stresses in the door body late. Such forces are caused by the door being moved suddenly toa closedposition when either the. upper corner or-lower corner of ottom'track with a vertical the door strikes the front door stop before the other corner does. This condition is caused by. the door opening bein out of square. Such forces are also caused w en the door suddenly hits the back door stop an eccentric blow. The crow-bar when used to open a door is another source of trouble.

Considerable difliculty is experienced with warplng of wooden doors and the fabrication of flat steel plates with metallic stiifeners is expensive and results in a Very heavy door and even corrugated metallic doors have been proposed but they lack the strength and resiliency of my design. I

The object of my device is to provide integral ribs or corrugations in a metallic plate when used as a side door for a'railway car which transmit any stresses imposed thereon to frame members at the opposite edges of the metallic plate, which frame members, with other similar frame members, form a rectangular frame for the fdoorfi And a further object is'to so form and shape such embossments or corrugations as to lmpart strength and rigidity to the plate adjacent its middle portion and to impart resiliency and flexibility'to the plate adjacent the ends of the corrugations adjacent the oppositely disposed frame members; 1

Inthe drawings:

prising my improvement.

Figs. 2 and 3 are section Fig.1 is afragmentaryside elevation of a railway car equipped with a side ddor. com- I s on line 2-2 and i 33 respectively of Fig. 1.

5 5respe ctively of Fig. l with the. car'parts omitted.

Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are sections similar to Figs. 3, 4 and 5 but show the major corrugations with an arcuate configuration.

Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive show the preferred form wherein the body plate of the door is provided with a plurality of parallel embossments, each embossment comprising a plurality of relatively shallow sinuous minor corrugations 20 formed therein which are spaced apart at least one point in their length,

preferably adjacent their ends, distances equal to their respective widths and the portion 21 of the plate between adjacent minor corrugations is also sinuous so that these minor corrugations merge together to form a contiguous sinuous'configuration symmetis very resilient and has a spring like action under loads, and, furthermore, produces a very strong section for the amount 'of metal used. These minor corrugations merge into' the plane of the plate by means of terminal portionsof any desired formation. A plu rality of such minor corrugations 20 merge I together adjacent the middle of the plate (or middle of the embossment comprising the minor and major corrugations) to form a lessernumber of major corrugations 22 With flat apices 23 which are spaced apart .d1s-- tances equal to their respective widths and the part 24 of the plate between these major corrugations 22 is also flat, thus forming a configuration symmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermost portions of these major corrugations so that this line is the neutral axis of the section.

' Such a section is stronger and relatively rigid .the increased depth also increases as compared with the section of the sinuous minor corrugations because more metal is positioned away from the neutral axis and the strength of the beam. The ends of the minor corru ations merge into the plane of the plate y means of-terminal portions 29 of any desired formation. By such an rrangement a corrugated metallic plate is pr vided which is relatively rigid ad acent the middle portion of the embossments and relatively'resilient adjacent the opposite end portions'of the embossments. The secondary oppositely projecting rib or corrugation 25 formed by the merging of the two adjacent minor corrugations 20 is equal in width to the'-adjacent minor corrugations at 26 and decreases in width as the minor corrugations merge together to form the major corrugation 22. -These secondary oppositely projectingiribs tions, thus'showing that I have not'sacrificed any required strength at thejends of the beams to dbtain resiliency; in other words, by my construction I obtain a very strong beam which is also resilient. The major corrugations are preferably wider than the minoricorrugations. v

As the embossment increases in depth toward its middle portion, this secondary rib preferably decreases in; depth proportionately so that the lengths of the center lines of the metallic plate of all cross sections of the embossment are equal to each other.

These shallower and deeper corrugations may be positioned and dimensioned so that the length of the center line of the metal of a cross section of the shallower corrugations.

(see Fig. 5) is the same as the length of the center line of the metal of a cross section of the dee er corrugations (see Fig. 3) and,

I furthermore, the corrugated plate may be so formed that the length of the center line of the metallic plate of any cross section (for instance, as per Fig. 4) is equal to the length of the center line of the metal of any other gross section, that is,'between the terminal portions. This is a material manufacturing advantage as it more evenly distributes the draw and stretch of the metal dueto pressing the corrugations in the plate.

Figs. 3,4 and 5 show the major corrugations 22, with flat apices 23 and the portions (24) of the plate between the major corrugations also being flat. Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are similar to Figs. 3, 4 and 5, respectively, and show the ma or corrugations with arcuate apices 27 and the portions of the plate (28) between the major'corrugations also being arcuate.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modificationsf thereof within the scope of the claims will occur to persons skilled in the art. v

I claim:

1. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a series of corrugations with their opposite ends terminating into the plate adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members, said corrugations merging together between their opposite ends to form a plurality of fewer wider cor- I rugations.

2. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a series of corrugations with their opposite ends terminating into the plate adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members, said corrugasite ends to form a plurality of fewer wider and deeper corrugations.

' 3. A horizontally movable side door for a railwaycar comprising a metallic plate s8 tions merging together between their oppowidth with their opposite ends terminating length of the center line of the metal of a 3:

into the plate adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members, said, corrugations merging together between their opposite ends to form a lesser number of corrugations spaced apartdistances substantially equal to their width. Y

4. .Ahorizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate se cured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a serles of corrugations symmetrical in cross section adjacent their ends about a line midway be- L tween the outermost portions of the corruga tions with their opposite ends terminating I gations.

into' the plate adjacent said oppositelydisposed frame members, said corrugatlons mergingtogether between their opposite ends to form a lesser number ofcorrugations symmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermost portions of the corru- 5. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a series of corrugationswith their opposite ends ter-.

minating into the plate adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members, said corru-- gations merging together between their opposite ends to form a lesser number of deeper corrugations, the length of the center line of the metal of a cross section of the shallower corrugations being substantially equal to the cross section of the deeper corru ations.

6. A horizontally movable si e door for a railway car comprising'a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a series of corrugations with their opposite ends te'rminating into the plate adjacent said oppo si'tely disposed frame members, said corrugations merging together between their opposite ends to form a lesser number of corrugations which are of constant cross section for a short distance at the center of the plate. 7. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate se cured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a series of sinuous and contiguous corrugations with their opposite ends terminating into the plate adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members, said corrugations merging together between their opposite ends to form a lesser number of corrugations with substantially flat apices.

8. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising-a metallic plate and oppositely disposed frame members, said metallic plate formed with a series of corrugations which have their opposite ends divided so as to provide a relatively rigid structure at a predetermined place between said frame members and a relatively resilient structure adjacent each of said frame members.

ARTHUR E. SMALL. 

